Catherine Tumber, a visiting scholar at Northeastern and author of “Small, Gritty, and Green: The Promise of America’s Smaller Industrial Cities in a Low-Carbon World,” says the glorification of knowledge work and innovation has meant that “manufacturing work and productive work of any kind has been disparaged.” In this regard, she tells me, “New England has been a chief violator.”

There was no shortage of good news in the Massachusetts jobs report for June, when unemployment dipped to 5.5 percent — its lowest rate in nearly six years — and when the growing number of people working in the state hovered at an all-time high.

“As the Interim Director of the School, I am looking forward to making fundamental contributions to the issues we research, creating solutions for social, economic and environmental challenges, and having lasting, positive impact on the people we reach – be they in classrooms, city halls or boardrooms, in our neighborhoods or around the world.”

In a report conducted by Northeastern University, released last week, analysts said the state’s investment in life sciences had pushed Massachusetts to the top of the list when measuring population-controlled life science employment, with 113,678 people involved in the industry throughout the state in 2012.

Alan Clayton-Matthews, a Northeastern University economist, said the jobs gained in May are a continuation of “moderate growth” for the state. As people have begun working again, incomes have risen, households have paid down debt, and home prices have increased.

Tim Hoff, Ph.D. and Associate Professor of Management, Health Care Systems, and Health Policy, has received one of the two 2014 Ronald Copeland Best Paper Awards. This award recognizes excellent published work from Northeastern faculty, and winners receive a $1,000 prize.

A cur­sory look at the Third National Cli­mate Assess­ment released Tuesday by the National Cli­mate Assess­ment and Devel­op­ment Advi­sory Com­mittee yields a grim out­look. The authors state that cli­mate change is already begin­ning to impact nearly every sector of the economy—and that’s not all: It’s already threat­ening human health and well being and adversely affecting our infra­struc­tures, our water resources, our crops, our live­stock, and our nat­ural ecosys­tems. What’s more, plan­ning efforts to adapt and mit­i­gate the problem are facing serious limitations.